Himachal to open national law university

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Friday said a law university would be soon opened in the state capital.

"The state has decided to open a national law university in Ghanahatti near Shimla in collaboration with the Himachal Pradesh High Court," the chief minister said in his inaugural address on the opening of a three-day regional judicial conference of northern states here.

The topic of the conference was "Strengthening justice delivery system: Tools and techniques".

Besides opening the law university, Singh said the government is constructing a state-of-the-art judicial academy in Shimla to ensure that the knowledge of the judicial officers is up to date.

"I am happy to learn that the backlog of five years and above cases in the subordinate courts in the state has come down to 8 percent."

The chief minister said the state legal services authority has been doing a commendable job in spreading the legal literacy and providing free legal aid to the poor. The state has formulated a litigation policy to settle disputes at pre-litigation stage.

"There is no denying the fact that the institution of judiciary has performed well but is under strain due to huge pendency and delay in disposal of cases which is a cause of great concern," he said.

Himachal Pradesh High Court Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir said judiciary in Himachal Pradesh was one of the best as reported by the Law Commission of India.

He said the hill state was the sixth in ranking whose pendency was less than five years right from the subordinate courts in the districts. He said this year the high court has disposed of 28,000 cases and efforts were to clear backlog of the remaining soon.

State Law Minister Kaul Singh, while recollecting memories of his legal profession, said there was a time when the cases piled in the courts for years.

Though the number of courts has increased, there is a need to speed up justice delivery system to give relief to people, he said.

Justice Rajeev Sharma of the state high court said there was no single or clear understanding of when a case should be counted as delayed.

"As e-government initiatives continue to transform the nature of India's bureaucracy and enhance the quality of government services, there is a need that information, communication and technology comes into play in judicial reforms too," he said.